RAWALPINDI: Customs authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle foreign currency worth about Rs10 million from Islamabad to Dubai and arrested an air passenger and his relative at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Thursday.

The arrest was made when passengers were checking into a Dubai-bound Air Blue flight. During the security screening, customs staff notices a large sum of money in one of the bags.

A customs spokesperson said that the passenger who was travelling with the bag was taken into custody and the rest of his family, who were travelling with him, were allowed to proceed.

He said that Saudi Riyals 330,000 and UAE Dirhams 42,500 were recovered from the cavities of the suitcase.

“The accused appeared to be in his early 20s”, Customs Deputy Collector Naghma-e-Tehniat told Dawn.

After he was arrested, Ms Tehniat said, the accused said that the money was his uncle’s who had come to see him off. Customs personnel took both uncle and nephew into custody and registered a case against them.

During preliminary investigations the accused denied being involved in currency smuggling and said his uncle had given him the bag to take with him.

The deputy collector customs said that the accused was travelling to Dubai on a work visa and had not travelled abroad during the year so far.

However, she said, that he had travelled to Dubai as a child.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2016